My student years were not only the most important years of my life, but they were also highly colourful and full of surprising events. They began at secondary school in Prešov during a period of great social change, high hopes and wonderful incentives on the cultural scene. I was caught up in the films of the "New Wave", I published my own secondary-school magazine Student (at first written by hand and, by the time I left school, it was being issued in a print-run of several thousand), which was to become the biggest school periodical of its kind in Slovakia.

When a friend and I set out on a hitch-hiking trip to the sea, Czechoslovakia was occupied by Russian forces and I found myself in a refugee camp in Yugoslavia. This was where my childhood ended, if somewhat delayed. Unlike the majority of its inmates, I wasn't heading for the West - but when they opened the frontiers, I took the first train home, back to my village. Despite my school-leaving exam results comprising all possible marks (1,2,3,4), I was accepted at Comenius University's Philosophical Faculty in Bratislava, where I studied journalism for three years. I apparently enchanted the entrance committee with my two string bags full of my literary work, the majority of which had been published in various Slovak (not only children's) magazines since I was ten.

It wasn't until university that I finally began to grow up. After experiencing the advent of Communist normalisation and the departure of all the teachers who had made such an impression on me, I decided to leave as well. I thus found the courage to register for FAMU (Film and Television School of the Academy of Performing Arts) in Prague; it was my dream to attend this school, but I didn't have any confidence in myself. They accepted me at the second attempt and I was able to experience my most wonderful years as a student, captivated by Prague, the film world, and the feeling that my personal freedom was reawakening - if only within a narrow circle of teachers and fellow-students, and within the four walls of our student accommodation…

When, as my studies were coming to a close, I achieved a major success, incredible for that time - acquiring a grant to study at the Italian film school Centro sperimentale di cinematografia in Rome - it wasn't a naive, apolitical country boy with his head in the clouds who returned home six months later, but a free man who wanted to help change the world…

aged 16 With my first love...

aged 17 First time by the sea in Bulgaria.

After a while I found out that Czechoslovakia had been occupied by the armies of "Soviet and friendly" nations during the night...

aged 18 With a friend in the High Tatras (Eastern Slovakia).

Section of the class photograph in Prešov.

During the matriculation ceremony in the great hall at Comenius University in Bratislava.

aged 19 Me as a witness at my cousin's wedding in Eastern Slovakia.

Summer job during the holidays - in the buffet of the "Park of Culture and Rest" in Bratislava.

aged 20 With class-mates in the mountains near Ružomberk...

... studying away from home.

aged 21 We had an accident in the bus during a college outing to Romania...

aged 22 The end of my first year at FAMU...

In student accommodation.

aged 23 The military training I had to do as a student depressed me...

aged 24 On television for the first time - as a guest on the TV show Broadcasting from Studio Jezerka.

aged 25 In a little Bulgarian pub on Sunny Beach.

age 26 My first colour photo from a photo-machine in Rome.

In the Vatican while studying in Rome.

aged 27 Shortly after my graduation ceremony with my Slovak friends on the steps of the Rudolfinum in Prague.

A few days before filming my professional Slovak debut - the documentary film Diadem.